1. This is the third post in a series in which I document new biographical material related to the collector Friedrich Grote (you can find the first two posts here and here). This post is about two letters by Grote that Vincent Engelhardt (Leiden University) found in the Central Archive of the Berlin State Museums… Continue reading New Materials on Grote (Part 3)
Tag: Friedrich Grote (1861-1922)
New Materials on Grote (Part 2)
1. In July, I published a long article on the biography of the collector of Sinaitic manuscripts Friedrich Grote (1861-1922).1 Grote can be described as one of the most underestimated manuscript collectors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He played a central role in the dispersion of the handwritten cultural heritage of St… Continue reading New Materials on Grote (Part 2)
Miscellaneous Identifications II: The Christian Arabic Undertext of the Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest
1. This is the second post in a series in which I document identifications associated with the work of early Christian Arabic scribes (you can find the first post here). Quite inadvertently, the material that I would like to present in this post has even led to three and not just one identification: the identification… Continue reading Miscellaneous Identifications II: The Christian Arabic Undertext of the Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest
If You Have Some Millions to Spare …: The Sale of Codex Sinaiticus Zosimi Rescriptus
1. “If you have some millions to spare, the bidding starts in less than an hour!” In this and similar ways, many colleagues drew attention on social media to Christie’s Live Auction 23056 on 11 June, which was entitled: “Manuscript Masterpieces from the Schøyen Collection”. This auction comprised 62 lots. Among them were enormously important… Continue reading If You Have Some Millions to Spare …: The Sale of Codex Sinaiticus Zosimi Rescriptus
Collecting Clues: A Forged Colophon and the Trade in Sinaitic Manuscripts
1. Imagine an old manuscript falls into your hands. You realise it is valuable and you want to turn it into money. You may even know someone potentially interested in buying the manuscript. Its monetary value is directly related to its age. The only problem is you don’t know exactly how old the manuscript is.… Continue reading Collecting Clues: A Forged Colophon and the Trade in Sinaitic Manuscripts
New Materials on Grote (Part 1)
1. Recently, I came across an online auction that was held almost a year ago to sell three curious photographs and a court document. The Amsterdam auction house Zwiggelaar offered the material as lot 1492 on 6 December 2022. The description states, among other things: “Depicts Grote, notorious collector of Christian Oriental manuscripts” (fig. 1).… Continue reading New Materials on Grote (Part 1)
Greek Fragments in Göttingen and Bryn Mawr and Their Previous Owners
1. Last year, Georgi Parpulov published a short piece entitled “Membra disiecta sinaitica Graeca” in Fragmentology 5 (2022).1. Although the article is only 7 pages long, in it Parpulov accomplishes a lot: he identifies 18 dispersed fragments of Greek manuscripts from Sinai – not counting the joins identified among Sinai’s New Finds. These 18 manuscripts… Continue reading Greek Fragments in Göttingen and Bryn Mawr and Their Previous Owners
An Arabic Medical Manuscript with Greek Maculatur
1. When I started studying the history of the fragmentary Sinai manuscripts kept at the Bavarian State Library in Munich, the digitized acquisition list of Oriental manuscripts (fig. 1) proofed very helpful. In 1921, the library bought six Christian Arabic fragments of Sinaitic provenance from the collector Friedrich Grote (1861-1922).1 Interestingly, the library’s acquisition list… Continue reading An Arabic Medical Manuscript with Greek Maculatur
A Greek-Arabic Liturgical Manuscript in Princeton’s Scheide Library
1. The largest batch of Sinaitic diaspora manuscripts ever to circulate on the European antiquities market was probably the one offered by the Leipzig-based antiquarian, book dealer, and publisher Karl Wilhelm Hiersemann (1854-1924). His Katalog 500, with the thematic title Orientalische Manuskripte, offered 54 manuscripts in 8 languages. The majority of these is probably of… Continue reading A Greek-Arabic Liturgical Manuscript in Princeton’s Scheide Library